How Common Diseases Affect Your Health Insurance?

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Written by PolicyBazaar

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Published : 30 August 2016

While the dynamics of our professional and personal lives are changing drastically, we are yet to understand if it is for the better or for worse. Stress, pollution and environmental degradation are all taking a toll on our health, which is showing in the common illnesses that we suffer from every now and then. Which are the common ailments in India that people seek insurance cover for? What is the trend inclined towards? Let us try and understand the common diseases that are afflicting Indians all over the country.

The Most Common Diseases that Continue to Affect Us

Alarmingly, there has been a drastic rise in the number of working people seeking claims for gastroenteritis, fever and other respiratory tract infections since 2012. Insurance experts have largely blamed it on unexpected seasonal changes owing to the drastic environmental conditions and unseasonal weather conditions coupled with weather fluctuations. Whenever there are major environmental changes, it triggers an increase in fever-related hospitalisations.

Other common infectious diseases that affect Indians include malaria, pneumonia and tuberculosis, which constitute a significant number of hospitalisations. Our dietary patterns, the prevalence of eating fast food and unhygienic eating conditions all contribute to the rise in gastroenteritis and fever related problems.

The lack of a balanced nutrition has also led to the increased incidence of heart ailments and kidney problems, which are also gradually rising in India.

Among other diseases, heart ailments are gradually gaining strength in India. This can be easily associated with our sedentary lifestyles and lack of exercise, which pose great danger for the heath. Also, lung and liver diseases are quite common in India, given the large number of smokers in the country.

Cancer: How Bad is it in India?

As per reports in 2015, around a whopping 10 lakh people are reported to suffer from cancer every year and approximately seven lakh people die of it every year. The numbers speak for itself and the situation seems even gloomier for the future, as the figures are expected to rise by two-fold to 17 lakh cancer patients by 2035.

Insurance policies in India mostly cover cancer as there are over 100 different kinds of cancer predominant in India today. However, the expenses related to the treatment of cancer are sky high and it often requires a person to shell out money from his own pocket to meet the expenses.

The Take of Insurance Companies on the Most Common Diseases

With healthcare insurance gradually evolving, insurance claims are no longer limited to critical illnesses alone. Fever and related hospitalisation expenses are also covered by insurance companies. In fact, it is for unprecedented hospitalisations such as these that people save a lot of money that would have been spent otherwise.

A common trend that has been noticed by insurance companies in India is that after the prevalence of diseases like fever, malaria, dengue etc., the claims made for the particular year have shown a rise. However, following a rough year, government authorities take certain preventive steps, which again lead to a drop in claims in the following year. A significant surge in claims made for fever was seen from 2012-2013, when the weather had seen drastic fluctuations.

Besides different types of infectious diseases, health insurance companies provide all-inclusive coverage for other serious conditions like cancer, which is growing deadlier by the day. Also, insurance seekers need to purchase a higher cover to meet cancer expenses, which is also rising exponentially.

As important as it is for insurance companies to cover the most common diseases in India, insurance seekers must also do their bit and choose their insurance policy carefully to make sure that it does not only critical illnesses, but common diseases that can affect us anytime.

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